Asus U41JF laptop review

Asus' ultrathin U41JF is designed to be both powerful and moveable, which has a chassis that is about one inch thick along with a Nvidia graphics card. Regrettably, the complete notebook looks low-cost, regardless of apparent attempts to generate it search in any other case. This notebook has all the correct areas, from your brushed-aluminum cover for the Chiclet-style keyboard and fancy graphics card (though no Sandy Bridge processor or Blu-ray drive), but it is still extremely naturally a budget machine.

Our assessment model, priced at $830, arrived loaded with a 2.53GHz Intel Core i3 380M processor, 4GB of RAM (upgradable to 8GB), and an Nvidia GeForce GT 425M graphics card. In addition, it carried a DVD-RW generate, a built-in 0.3-megapixel Webcam, and a 500GB difficult generate. It ran a 64-bit version of Windows 7 House Premium and had a 14.1-inch display screen.

The U41JF's desirable, brushed-aluminum silver cover is straightforward, with a little mirrored logo from the center. The rest of the chassis, preserve to the interior deck location (which functions the same brushed-aluminum because the cover), is black and subtly textured. Asus has sacrificed some sturdiness in favor of portability: the laptop computer doesn't sense sturdy in any respect, and also the lid/display bends effortlessly below quite light pressure.

However Asus touts the U41JF like a superthin, superlight ultraportable, only the laptop's screen appears impressively thin. The remainder of the laptop is common for an ultraportable model, weighing in at about 4.seven kilos and measuring about 1 inch thick. No less than Asus didn't skimp on battery life--our exams eked out almost seven hours of battery daily life together with the integrated six-cell battery. The U41JF gives three USB two.0 ports, a VGA-out, an HDMI-out, an ethernet jack, microphone and headphone jacks, and a multi-in-one card reader.

I found the U41JF's Chiclet-style keyboard quiet and comfy to kind on. The matte-black keys are set in opposition to a shiny, smooth black track record, and are spaced evenly apart. The keyboard doesn't really feel cheap, nonetheless it visibly bent inside the middle as I typed on it--not a great indication, to say the minimum. The trackpad is responsive and features a silver mirrored rocker bar as a substitute of particular person mouse buttons. Equally the trackpad and the rocker bar are big and cozy to use, and neither seems especially low-cost.

The 14.1-inch glossy display has a native resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels. It combats glare moderately well, and displayed subject material is straightforward to see, even in vibrant (however not direct) sunlight. Horizontal and vertical viewing angles are dismal, nonetheless: This isn't a laptop computer for side-by-side motion picture viewing. The Altec Lansing speakers, which can be located along the bottom front with the chassis, are loud sufficient to fill a medium-size room, nonetheless they sound quite tinny with the highest volumes.

The U41JF earned a WorldBench 6 score of 107--pretty very good for an all-purpose laptop (negligibly better compared to 106 managed by our top-scoring laptop computer in the group, the HP Envy 14, but reduce than the 126 posted by our latest second-place laptop computer within the group, the Asus N53SV). The U41JF also delivered pretty excellent video playback and done admirably in video games for the laptop of its class. It's completely suitable for streaming Hd video and enjoying graphics-intensive video games.

The biggest issue with the Asus U41JF is its general appear. Even though Asus obviously sought to emulate the Macbook Professional with its brushed-aluminum casing, Chiclet-style keyboard, and smooth(ish) layout, the U41JF just ends up seeking actually low cost. Factor in the laptop's usually cheap sense, so you have a foundation for seeking elsewhere.A single nicer-looking, more sturdy sensation laptop which has a related cost could be the Gateway ID49C13u ($840), which obtained a WorldBench 6 score (106) and carried out similarly properly in our graphics tests.